


catch me i'm falling

by redrobinhood



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Hurt No Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:42:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26168083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redrobinhood/pseuds/redrobinhood
Summary: Riyo regrets the view from her window. All it has ever done is give her a look at her world as it falls apart.
Relationships: Riyo Chuchi/CC-1010 | Fox
Comments: 11
Kudos: 52





	catch me i'm falling

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who is back on the angst bus! Beep beep! Forgive me! :) I swear I’ll give you something happy to make up for it.
> 
> The “promised” angsty one-shot.

For the second time in her life, Riyo regretted the view out of her window. The first time, Fox had been called on with the highest priority and run to his command. She had been preparing for bed by herself when she noticed a new light from her bedroom window. Opening the blinds, she had beheld the Jedi Temple in flames. That night, she had sat in her living room until dawn, clutching a cup of tea as she watched the Temple burn. She hadn’t seen Fox again for a week, until he’d appeared at her office with empty eyes and very little to say. Then, he had held her as she cried for all they had lost.

Now, she had been preparing for bed, alone once again, when she heard the muffled explosion. She ran to the living room to watch as a plume of smoke rose from the side of the Jedi Temple. She could’ve sworn she saw a green blade dancing with a red one amongst the smoke. But that was impossible, the Jedi were gone. She saw the patrol transport move towards the blast site and wondered what was going on. She wondered if Fox was there. He had been ordered to secure the Jedi Temple for reasons unknown. Surely he was still on-site. She swallowed the panic rising in her throat, returning to the bathroom to brush out the unnatural curls that her senatorial hairstyling had left behind. Seconds later, the second explosion shook her mirror and she ran back to the window to see smoke rising from a neighborhood bordering the Temple. The HoloNet held no answers for her. Now, once again, she couldn’t sleep. She slipped on a loose pair of pants over the romper she had been wearing and sat down on the couch to watch the smoke billow into the night.

A knock on the door disturbed her. She glanced towards the clock to check the late hour, then rose and walked to the door. She brought up the image of a white and red clone on her doorstep and pressed the button to speak.

“Hello?”

“Senator Chuchi, it’s Jek.”

Of course it was, she could see very clearly his distinctive marks from wear and tear across his armor. She couldn’t shake the feeling of unease that the late visit had brought to her. Still, it was Jek. She opened the door. “What brings you here at this hour, Jek?” She hadn’t seen him, nor any of the clones besides Fox, in weeks. They had been overwhelmed by the formation of their new Empire and the government was in chaos.

Jek sighed and took off his helmet so that she could see his face. He wasn’t crying, nor had he been crying, but he looked like he was on the verge of bursting into tears. “Thire sent me. Commander Fox is dead.”

For a moment, she wondered who Commander Fox was and why she would want to know if he was dead. Then it hit her that it was her Fox, her beloved commander, and she felt something inside her break. Jek reached out for her as she swayed, steadying her in his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck for support, focusing her gaze on the looping tattoo on his neck as she tried to remember how to balance on her legs, how to stand. She’d known that this day may come, that every time she said goodbye to Fox it could be for the last time, but nothing could’ve prepared her for the sheer numbness that was filling her.

“I want to see his body.” The words spilled out before she could think of them in her mind. She almost hoped that he would refuse her, allow her last memory of Fox to be of him leaning down over her on the couch, afternoon sunlight streaming across his features, to kiss her before departing to his station. Was that really only hours ago?

Jek took a deep breath, pulling her closer into a proper hug. “Okay.”

* * *

He brought her to the wreckage of the patrol transport she had heard crash earlier. Small fires still burnt amongst the twisted remains and the smell of burning metal filled the area. Jek refused to leave the speeder, but pointed her to the white and red armor of Commander Thire, who was talking with the fire suppression team. She made her way over to him, wishing she’d grabbed something with sleeves so that she could’ve covered her nose. He noticed her before she was upon them and stepped back to greet her.

“Riyo.” He sounded tired. The blatant use of her name threw her off for a moment, but she pushed on to stand beside him.

“Thire.” How long had it been since she’d seen him? She knew that he had been involved with the hunt for the Jedi who had attempted to assassinate the then Chancellor, taking perhaps the most proactive role in the Coruscant Guard in the Jedi Purge besides Commander Stone, who had been killed at the Jedi Temple on the night it burned. She wondered how he could sleep at night. Maybe he couldn’t.

She turned her attention from the commander into the wreckage beside them. There were scattered bits of burnt plastoid littering the ground and a few shapes which she recognized as burnt bodies. She bit her tongue as she continued to scan the site. Peeking out from underneath part of the wreckage she could see a pair of familiar boots. Rys. How many times had she seen those boots next to her? She’d know them almost as well she knew her own shoes. She understood why Jek had elected to stay in the speeder. Beside him, a little way away from the wreckage, she saw a set of red armor. She stepped forward but Thire grabbed her and pulled her back. The numbness inside her lifted, making room for crushing despair.

“Please. Please, let me see him. Please. Please. Please!” She fought against his grip as she sobbed, screaming at him to let her go. He didn’t say a thing, just held her until her voice was hoarse and her struggles had stilled. When Thire’s grip on her loosened she nearly fell to the ground. She would have fallen if he had not caught her and pulled her close to him. She didn’t notice the fleeting glances that some of the clones on-site sent her way. None of them approached.

“Riyo, you won’t be able to unsee this. Are you sure?” Thire finally said as he steadied her.

“Please, Thire. I owe him this much.” She wished he’d take off his helmet so that she could plead her case to a man and not a suit of armor. Yet, she couldn’t bear to see Fox’s face staring back at her; or Rys’, or any of the clones that had been on the gunship.

Thire nodded and helped her to her feet. He walked over with her to the red armor- she refused to think of it as Fox- and stood behind her as she fell to her knees beside the body. She reached for the stretch of black between Fox’s chest plate and helmet, slipping her hand under his neck. She was horrified when it bent unnaturally under her touch and she realized how he must have died. Swallowing her fear, she reached instead for his helmet, trying not to jostle his head as she removed it. Thire had knelt down behind her and he now lay his hands on her shoulders. She took Fox’s face in her hands and ran her thumbs numbly across his cheeks. How many times had she done this while he was alive; taken off his helmet and ran her hands across his face as if it belonged to her. She was thankful that his eyes were closed, though a look of sadness was still etched into his brow and lips. She realized that he must’ve begged to be spared in his final moments. She could never picture her proud Fox begging for his life, but maybe he did, for her. She continued to run her thumbs across his face as she took in his features for the last time. She almost missed Thire reaching out from behind her to prod at Fox’s throat.

“The crash didn’t kill him.” He’d taken off his helmet. His voice was level, detached, as if he was going through his thought processes out loud for her benefit. “Neither did our men, there would be bruising. But he was dead long before this ship hit the ground.” He brought his hand back to her shoulder. “It was a nearly instantaneous death, Riyo. He would’ve barely felt it.”

“You know who killed him then.” She didn’t turn around and Thire didn’t answer. “Please, tell me.”

“I did. I was the one who found him, on Mustafar. I brought the medical capsule. I saved his life. This is all my fault.”

Riyo finally turned to look at Thire. He wasn’t crying, but the blank look on his face was worse. She’d been afraid to see Fox in Thire’s face, but felt more afraid when she realized that she couldn’t. “Thire, please.”

“Vader.” He looked out at the debris around them and Riyo felt a chill run down her spine despite the heat. She let out a shaky breath and buried her face in the crook of Fox‘s neck. She almost hoped that she would feel his arms wrap around her as they always had before. But she was too late.

* * *

Her apartment felt empty. It had always felt empty without Fox there, ever since the first night he had stayed in her bed. She kept waiting for him to walk in the door and tell her how he had faked his death so that they could run away together. But that would never happen. She knew that it had been Fox that she’d buried that day. Not that she’d buried him. His body had been taken by the Empire.

She sat as she usually did now, alone in her chair with her datapad and Fox’s helmet in her lap. She had been permitted to take that much, and Thire, the new commanding officer of the Coruscant Guard, had later brought her his bracers. As she reviewed her notes, she ran her fingers across the plastoid, tracing the painted stripes or the exaggerated features.

A message chimed across the top of her datapad from Senator Organa. She opened it.

_‘Are you with us?’_

Maybe it was inappropriate for him to take advantage of her grief. When Bail had asked for her thoughts on the Empire before, she had turned him down- fearing retaliation. She wasn’t afraid anymore. Riyo clutched the helmet to her so hard as to dig the plastoid into her skin as she responded.

_‘Yes’_

Vader would pay.

**Author's Note:**

> There isn’t enough angst in this ship so you’re welcome :)
> 
> For those following my Foxiyo works, I have an outline for the follow-up to illicit affairs so that should be coming soon! I’m devoting most of my time to tying up Age of Heroes but once I feel I can step back from that- it’s on. 
> 
> *Self promo time* Do you like angst? If so, hop on over to Age of Heroes, a retelling of Revenge of the Sith, for more upcoming angst! If you don't like angst, no choir- my illicit affairs sequel- should be ready to go in about two weeks.


End file.
